Before I launch my site and start booking paying clients for outdoor portrait shoots, I have a problem to fix. I've done 5 or 6 regular pro-bono shoots to grow my portfolio, familiarize myself with my lighting equipment, and just learn how to direct people while shooting portraits of them, etc. But ideally, I want to be able to provide a client with 10-20 proofs of shots that are worth editing and keeping, so they can go through them and have a wide selection to choose from if they end up ordering prints.

So far, I've noticed that I sort of run out of ideas around 1 hour into the shoot. This generally leaves me with something more like 5 or 10 good images, where I need more. I have heard it's not uncommon for a shoot to last longer than 3 hours, which helps justify the price some photographers charge for a sitting. Is there something I'm missing, or should I just push it and try to fill it out to something more like 2 hours? Are there any tricks I can use to expand the length of the session?

2 - 3 hours for a portrait/family session. That's a really really long time and if I was the client I would get sick of that much time posing. Not too mention little kids don't have the attention span for 2 hours of posing. I would work on getting more/better shots in less time.

Sounds good... I guess it is less that I think they'll buy more prints if there are 20 keepers than that I want to offer a variety of options for them to choose from instead of sticking with 6 or 7 "standard" poses. I do like the idea of just working on getting more keepers in the same hour though. Maybe if I pre-plan various poses instead of flying by the seat of my pants, I'll be efficient enough to crank out a couple more than 10 keepers in an hour.

Depends on the client. If they don't have a specific spot in mind, I have several areas that are tried and true for portraits that I'll default to, depending on weather, subject, what the client is looking for, etc.

Depends on the client. If they don't have a specific spot in mind, I have several areas that are tried and true for portraits that I'll default to, depending on weather, subject, what the client is looking for, etc.

Click to expand...

How do you handle it when the client selects a location you're not familar with? Do you scout the location prior to the sitting? If you do, do you charge for your time to do so?

I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but 5-10 shots in an hour seems... low. Maybe it's because I do a lot more work with children, and an hour with younger children is the upper limit of what they'll tolerate, but even when I work with adults, unless it's a boudoir session or a maternity session with several outfit/location/background changes, an hour usually nets at least 50 clean usable images. Now, I wouldn't proof 50 images with a client for an hours work, but 5-10 just seems terribly terribly low.

When it comes to my portrait sessions, usually it's a matter of trying to fit in all the poses that I want to try in my time limit, rather than trying to fluff out the session. You should have a fairly standard range of poses to draw on (not to duplicate! To draw on!), and if you use a set range of locations, you should be familiar with the location and where the best light/shots are so that you aren't fumbling around trying to figure it out on the spot. When I shoot in clients homes, if I haven't been there before, I'll do a walkthrough with the client to see where we will shoot and match up shots to the location as we go and determine how much equipment I'll need.

My motto is shoot fat, trim down later. Go into your session with an idea of what you are going to shoot ahead of time, and allot your time accordingly. If you're billing for 2-3 hours of shooting, give value to your clients and make sure you are prepared to take a wide range of shots, or offer time for them to change outfits, or locations.

I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but 5-10 shots in an hour seems... low. Maybe it's because I do a lot more work with children, and an hour with younger children is the upper limit of what they'll tolerate, but even when I work with adults, unless it's a boudoir session or a maternity session with several outfit/location/background changes, an hour usually nets at least 50 clean usable images. Now, I wouldn't proof 50 images with a client for an hours work, but 5-10 just seems terribly terribly low.

When it comes to my portrait sessions, usually it's a matter of trying to fit in all the poses that I want to try in my time limit, rather than trying to fluff out the session. You should have a fairly standard range of poses to draw on (not to duplicate! To draw on!), and if you use a set range of locations, you should be familiar with the location and where the best light/shots are so that you aren't fumbling around trying to figure it out on the spot. When I shoot in clients homes, if I haven't been there before, I'll do a walkthrough with the client to see where we will shoot and match up shots to the location as we go and determine how much equipment I'll need.

My motto is shoot fat, trim down later. Go into your session with an idea of what you are going to shoot ahead of time, and allot your time accordingly. If you're billing for 2-3 hours of shooting, give value to your clients and make sure you are prepared to take a wide range of shots, or offer time for them to change outfits, or locations.

Click to expand...

Better still, just get it done in one hour and charge the same. They are not buying your time, they are buying your photos. My sessions usually go 45 to an hour for a family session, I usually show about 60 proofs, of which 8-20 get bought. I did some high volume fundraising work for a while, family, kids, parents, three poses (and paperwork & presell) in ten minutes. From this I learned that to get a good shot of the kids you have to earn their trust and get a good shot in the first couple of minutes or it just would not happen, or be quite difficult. Not so bad outdoors though where they can wander and are more comfortable than in the studio.